Far more acquisitions are mooted than ever take place, and last week brought news of a proposed Dutch acquisition by Computer Sciences Corp, El Segundo, California that got away. The computer services giant had been negotiating for some time to snap up Amsterdam-based DCI NV – the holding company of the DCE companies in the Netherlands, DCE Computer Consultancy Ltd of Woking, Surrey, UK and Amsterdam, Netherlands-based interactive video and computer-based training specialist CAV and software development tools specialist Value Added Consultancy – for $25m, but the talks broke down. DCI claims that it has turned down a takeover offer because it didn’t see eye to eye with Computer Sciences on its future direction. DCI was established in 1980 and made pre-tax profits of UKP1.1m on turnover of UKP11.5m in its last financial year. DCE’s information management consultancy accounted for 95% of turnover. About 75% of the business is conducted in the Netherlands – where CAV has just signed a UKP3m contract with the Dutch government – with the UK accounting for the rest. DCI employs 220 staff, 35 of them here. During the past year the company has restructured its Dutch operations into four regional companies, the better to manage its growth: the four are DCE Amsterdam, West Nederland, Midden Nederland and Zuid Nederland.
